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Hockey today isn’t the same game it was when the Vancouver Millionaires were champions in 1915

Vancouver Millionaires star Fred (Cyclone) Taylor, circa 1913.

Photograph by: GLENN BAGLO
, PROVINCE PROVINCE

The Canucks and the Senators will be sporting throwback uniforms when they take the ice for the Heritage Classic, but the similarities to the 1915 Stanley Cup final pretty much end there.

Yes, that pre-NHL Cup championship series was between teams from the respective cities — the Ottawa Senators and Vancouver Millionaires — but the hockey back in the day was so different it would be barely recognizable now.

Forward passing was largely illegal, goaltenders weren’t allowed to leave their feet and line changes were unknown because players typically stayed on the ice for the entire game.

“The game was much slower back then, even though there were fast guys, and they would shoot out when they got the puck,” said Vancouver-based hockey historian Craig Bowlsby, author of Empire of Ice: The Rise and Fall of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, 1911-1926.

“In terms of the team game, there would be passing either backwards or laterally as they went up the ice, but you wouldn’t have any breakout passes. One guy would carry the puck in and he could shoot off a rebound, but you couldn’t pass to the guy ahead of you. That was like an offside. So when the PCHA sort of invented the forward pass, it was a big deal. They had invented it the season before, but nobody really knew how to use it yet.”

While the X’s and O’s were being worked out, creative, dynamic players such as Fred (Cyclone) Taylor — the superstar of his day and a key player for the Millionaires — certainly took advantage of the uptick in speed that even limited forward passing afforded. Taylor scored seven goals and added three assists to lead all scorers in the three-game sweep of the Senators.

“Taylor would still be very fast and he would swoop around the opposition very quickly,” said Bowlsby. “His ability to manoeuvre, even backwards, was incredible.”

To further complicate things, the two hockey leagues that played for the Stanley Cup in those days — The PCHA and the National Hockey Association (NHA) — each played by a different set of rules.

And we’re not talking minor tweaks here.

The PCHA game, influenced by league founders Frank and Lester Patrick, featured the rover — a sixth skater in addition to the usual two defencemen and three skaters. PCHA rules had also recently introduced two blue lines to divide the ice surface into three zones — and allowed forward passing in the centre or neutral zone.

In the eastern-based NHA, teams used five skaters — as today — and forbade forward passing.

Another disadvantage for the 1915 Senators was the different concept of penalties. Ottawa was a much rougher team and in the NHA a penalized player had to sit in the penalty box, but his team was allowed to substitute another player to take his place on the ice. PCHA rules dictated that a team must play shorthanded if their player was sent to the penalty box.

Fairly distinct differences, and how they attempted to level the playing field was alternating rules for each game. As the Stanley Cup games were played in just one team’s city — due to the impracticality of travel at the time — the home squad got a huge advantage by starting off with its own rules. No surprise the Millionaires won the best-of-five Cup in three straight games.

Perhaps as a result of being unaccustomed to playing a faster, unfamiliar game, the Ottawa players reportedly weren’t happy about the playing conditions in Vancouver.

“They complained about the ‘sea air,’” said Bowlsby. “They found it difficult to breathe when they were trying to catch the Millionaires zipping around them.”

The Millionaires made it to the Stanley Cup final three more times before the NHL took over the competition in 1927, losing each in the maximum five games.

After its Seattle franchise folded, the PCHA merged with the new Western Canada Hockey league, but that went out of business in 1926 — marking the end of the Millionaires, who had become the Maroons in 1922.

Player equipment in 1915:

Thin shin pads

Thin thigh pads

Elbow pads

No shoulder pads

One-piece stick they’d use the whole season

Goalies wore regular hockey gloves, didn’t catch the puck, and legs pads that were like those used in cricket.

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